Roast that Chicken

A few weeks ago I purchased a very promising whole chicken from Olympia Local Foods. It's from Tachira Farms - Organic (perhaps not certified, but I'm going to go ahead and guess it would be pretty close), pasture raised / free range, and all that good stuff. 

Having never roasted a whole chicken before I don't have any sort of go to recipe... I just picked the one that looked the best on foodgawker and went for it. 

The result: This tasty looking little devil. 

The way is quite simple too. 

Wash and dry the raw chicken.

Give it a nice rub with a heft amount of salt and pepper (inside and out).

Take 3 small lemons. Roll them and puncture them in no fewer than 20 spots each. Get them in the cavity and seal it up with some toothpicks.

@350 degrees cook for 30 minutes breast down.

Flip it - 30 more minutes. 

Crank them temp up to 450 and let it go for 20 more minutes. Check the temperature and cook for longer if needed. 

Let it sit for a little bit an dig in. It's fantastic.

Pretzel Party

Think back to the days of wandering the aisles of the mall. Anchor Blue? EB Games? Spencer Gifts? Those all sound good... but what is the little treat that ties it all together? Not shitty Sbarro pizza, I'm talking a tasty warm pretzel... preferably with a side cup of sleaze cheese.

While I didn't manufacture any mystery cheese, I did make tasty soft pretzels. I also topped them with three different types of toppings. I also set off all the smoke (steam) detectors in the house, made a few deformed pretzels that I ate before taking pictures, and put way too much salt on the salt and pepper ones.

It was an exciting day.

I got the recipe from here.

Dough

1 cup warm water
1 packet active rise yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2.5-3 cups all purpose flour
splash olive oil

Water

Large pot of water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar

Toppings of your choice.

Now, make it happen. Ready the kitchen aid and dough hook!

Mix the dough and warm water, let it sit for a few minutes.

Add the salt, sugar, vegetable oil, and 2 cups of flour.

Mix it up and for 10 minutes adding additional flour until all the dough sticks to the dough hook. Shut it down and let it rise, covered with a towel, for about 40 minutes.

Cut it into pieces (I chose 8) and make each section into a rope to make a pretzel. At this point it's advised to let the formed pretzels rise again for 20 minutes... but I forgot. I went right ahead and added them to the boiling water mixture.

Give them 20 seconds on each side and then take them out press them in toppings. My 3 varieties were...

Garlic Feta Dill
(chopped roasted garlic, feta cheese, and dried dill)

Salt and Pepper
(sea salt and cracked pepper)

Chocolate
(Theo chocolate nibs and granulated sugar)

Now, toss them in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees and then you are ready to enjoy some tasty pretzel treats.